Original Source: Draft report (part one) of the seventh session A/HRC/7/L.11/Add.1

7/33. From rhetoric to reality: a global call for concrete action against
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance

The Human Rights Council,

Reaffirming all the previous resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly, the
Commission on Human Rights and the Council on the elimination of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance,

1. Salutes all positive developments in the fight against racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance;

2. Welcomes the landmark and historic formal apology by the Government of Australia
for the past laws and policies that inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on its indigenous
peoples;

3. Urges Governments that have not done so to issue formal apologies to the victims of
past and historic injustices and to take all necessary measures to achieve the healing and
reconciliation of and the restoration of dignity to those victims, as outlined in paragraph 101 of
the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action;

4. Urges all Governments to summon the necessary political will to take decisive steps
to combat racism in all its forms and manifestations;

5. Acknowledges the report of the Working Group of Experts on People of African
Descent1 on its eighth session;

6. Welcomes the convening of the first part of the sixth session of the Intergovernmental
Working Group on the Effective Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of
Action in January 2008, during which the Working Group made an initial contribution to the
preparatory process of the Durban Review Conference, and looks forward to the convening of
the second part of the sixth session, during which the Working Group should continue its
follow-up to the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action,
including the relevant paragraphs of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, which
are yet to receive the necessary attention, in accordance with the Working Group’s programme
of work;



1 A/HRC/7/36.





7. Also welcomes the convening of the first part of the first session of the Ad Hoc
Committee on the Elaboration of Complementary Standards in February 2008, and requests the
Ad Hoc Committee, at the second part of its first session, to fulfil, as a matter of priority, the
mandate entrusted to it by the Council in its decision 3/103 and resolution 6/21;

8. Acknowledges the report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance to the Council at its seventh
session;2

9. Decides to invite the Group of Five Independent Eminent Experts to address the
Council at its tenth session.

42nd meeting
28 March 2008
[Adopted by a recorded vote of 34 votes to none,
with 13 abstentions. See chap. IX.]
























2 A/HRC/7/19.